Sure Signal - doesn't work - maybe incompatible with Livebox?

[Arkwright]

Second Sure Signal box, 8 help chats, £100 and many frustrating hours - STILL NOT WORKING.

Yes - I've looked at the troubleshooting page as well, which tells me to follow the instructions against  the picture of the SureSignal box that looks like mine. Which is: neither.

Vodafone replaced the first box they sent after about 6 Help Chats and a myriad different instructions (including stuff which stopped my mobile working when I could actually get a mast signal), saying the box must be faulty. Alas, the second one does exactly the same as the first.That is, it sits with red power-up light blinking and user light solid amber despite registering, repoweing, resetting (many times) - and my mobile cannot see it.

During the 8th chat I was asked how long the box had been powered up. I said - over 2 hours. Reply? Give it 2-4 hours. II had a feeling if I'd said 4 hours they would have said give it 4 - 8 hours. I've now given it 24 hours+.

Since Vodafone Help don't know what to do - I'm trying my luck here, before I go stark raving mad.

Has anybody else got this latest SureSignal box working with Orange Livebox? I'm wondering if the problem is that it's incompatible. The Livebox is several years old, one of those white ones which is rather wedge-shaped. The SureSignal box has no cable - it's a single block with an integral 13Amp plug. Anybody got this combination working?

Hoping that there is a Fellow Sufferer out there with experience and cure for this disease.

Thankyou.

[Retired-James]

Hi Arkwright,

Please take a look at our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread. If this doesn’t resolve your query, please post your reply either below, or in the relevant thread, together with the details requested, including the following information.

Your speed test results from here.

Your ping test results from here.

Your external IP address from here.

The results of a traceroute.

Your Sure Signal serial number:

VSS Traceroute command

On a PC:

Click on Start and select Run

Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok

A black box will appear.

In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter

Paste the output of this command into your reply.

This will help us get the quickest possible resolution for you.

Thanks

James

[Arkwright]

Thankyou. Here are the diagnostics.

Download speed 0.906Mb/s

Upload speed 0.498Mb/s

Pingtest:

• Ping 46ms
• Jitter 5ms
• Packet Loss 0%
• Line Quality B* MOS: 427

IP Address is: 2.25.27.65

Sure Signal Serial Number: 40123636645

I attach a screenshot of the traceroute.

Thankyou.

[Arkwright]

PS As I wrote previously, the Troubleshooter does not picture my type of Sure Signal. However, I did look carefully through each of the two types it does show. None of the faults listed is the fault on mine, namely: red power light flashing continuously a short while after powering up, and the User light is solid amber. So the Troubleshooter was no help.

[Retired-Dave]

Hi Arkwright,

Apologies - we're currently putting the finishing touches to the troubleshooter for the latest model of Sure Signal.

I'm not sure which of the three lights you are referring to as the "User" light, and each of the three can point to a slightly different issue. If you number the three icons to the right of the power light as 1-3 from left to right, can you advise what each light is showing for me?

Looking at our system, the Sure Signal has not yet connected with our system, however the details you've posted do look fine. There could be a number of reasons for this, so can you also check the following for me:

 - Are both Ethernet port lights either lit or flashing on the Sure Signal port? If not, this means the sure Signal is not connecting with the router. Can you try another Ethernet cable to see if this helps?

 - If you reboot the router and Sure Signal together (Power off the Sure Signal, then the router, fully reboot the router and finally restart the Sure Signal) does this help? If there is a failed connection between the two blocking things then this will help clear it.

 - Can you try resetting the Sure Signal by holding the reset button on the base (Next to the cable ports) for approximately 30 seconds for me? This should force the Sure Signal to reconnect at our end.

 - Can you confirm the following ports have been opened for forwarding - 8, 50, 123, 500, 4500, 1723?

 - Can you check that the router's MTU is set to either 1500 or - if not possible - the highest available value.

I have performed a resync on our system, so can you also try just following the reset instructions listed above to see if this clears things for me? If not, let us know.

Dave

[Arkwright]

Hi

1) Although I believe that, using your proposed numbering system, it is lights 1 and 3 we are talking about, as one is on the extreme left and the other on the extreme right, it is not possible to be certain because the lights are covered by a strip and are not visible unless they happen to light up. No middle light has ever lit up so I don't know whether the one on the right is 2 or 3. To remove this ambiguity I have photographed the Sure Signal box with both of the light lit and labelled them - ATTACHED. (You'll agree that it's not great that your customers are posting idents of parts of your device to you for troubleshooting.)

(BTW the term "User Light" originates in your own Quick Start guide, and refers to the image of the ringing mobile.)

Steady state fault is for the red power light on the left to flash, and solid (continuous)  User Light on the right. I assume these would be (1) and (3) on your suggested system.

2) As you see on the foot of the photo, both of the ethernet LEDs are lit - green on the left and yellow on the right of the socket. These are continuous, not flashing. Therefore I have not tried a different Ethernet cable. (And it's worth noting that the exact same state occurred with the first Sure Signal box and Ethernet that I returned to you.)

3) I have powered off the Sure Signal, then the router, fully rebooted the router and finally restarted the Sure Signal. Fault remains.

4) I have reset the Sure Signal as described. As always, this results only in a temporary change: the User Light goes out for a short time (maybe half a minute or so) and the power light is continuous red - and then it reverts to the steady state fault pattern above.

5) I'm afraid you'll have to tell me how to check which ports have been opened for forwarding. I think as non-IT people go I'm pretty IT-literate, but it doesn't extend to this expertise.

6) Ditto checking the router's MTU (whatever that is).

Thanks.

[Jenny]

Hi Arkwright,

Thanks for getting back to us. The information you need for port forwarding and for checking your routers MTU is as follows:

Manually configure your Router to allow port-forwarding.
In most cases, routers support a system called "Universal Plug-n-Play" or UPnP, which will setup port-forwarding for you automatically. If you have a complicated network setup, or a complex router, you may be required to enter these settings in manually.

The following details list the IP addresses and Port Numbers that need to be forwarded to your Sure Signal's internal IP address. For detailed instructions on how to do this, we recommend either contacting your ISP or Router Manufacturer, or referring to the Default Guide for your particular make and model, over at http://portforward.com

Destination IP Addresses:
212.183.133.177
212.183.133.178
212.183.133.179
212.183.133.181
212.183.133.182
212.183.131.128/26

Ports and Protocols:
Port 50 - TCP/IP
Port 4500 - UDP
Port 500 - UDP
Port 123 - UDP

Port 8 - TCP/IP

Port 1723 (BT Customers only) - TCP/UDP

Please note that in the above list of IP addresses, the notation "212.183.131.128/26" means the complete range of IP addresses between 212.183.131.128 and 212.183.131.191

Your Router will also need to be able to assign the Sure Signal with a DNS Server address via DHCP.

Check your MTU settings

Log into your admin page for your router

Find the location of the MTU field. This varies depending on the make and model of router so you’ll need to hunt around for it.

Change the value of the MTU size to 1500

Log out of the router, this will usually result in a reboot.

Perform hard rest of the VSS unit by

Hold in the reset button until all the light go solid

Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in

Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead

Wait for all of the lights to come on then release the reset button

The VSS will now try to contact the network and download its profile. This may take anything up to 6 hours.

Thanks,

Jenny

[chorotega]

you need a minimum of 1Mb broadband speed to use Sure Signal, yours looks slower than that so looks like it will not work.

[Arkwright]

OK - I will change ISP in the hope this will make my SureSignal Box work.

Thanks for your instructions but on reading them I figured that, IT-literate as I am, I need an IT consultant to get this Plug n Play SureSignal box to work with an Orange Livebox router, and spending £100 has been enough.

I'll probably change to either BTor PlusNet. Do you know whether SureSignal works with either or both of their laterst devices? (We're copper, not optic fibre.)

Thanks.

[Jenny]

Hi Arkwright,

Thanks for getting back to me.

There shouldn’t be any reason that your Sure Signal won’t work with those routers

Cheers,

Jenny